


And In The Morning

by oopsabird



Category: DCU, Wonder Woman (2017), Wonder Woman - All Media Types
Genre: Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Missing Scene, Pre-Slash, Wonder Woman (2017) Spoilers, elri and oopsabird’s great shipbuilding adventure, sober Charlie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-07 22:54:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12851271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oopsabird/pseuds/oopsabird
Summary: If that snowy night in Veld had been the calm before the storm, this sunrise was the stunned quiet in the wake of the hurricane. The moment to look around and take stock of what made it through the vicious night - and what didn’t.Missing scene/coda: Sameer at the airfield, after.





	And In The Morning

**Author's Note:**

> Patty Jenkins (& co) created god’s perfect superhero movie, so it’s only natural that my big ego decided that I could improve upon it. Or at least, upon one 6-second scene. I’ve taken some liberties with the on-screen chronology, mostly cause I wrote this from memory at 2am hyped up on caffeine lol
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> (title from the famous fourth stanza of [Laurence Binyon’s WWI poem “For The Fallen”](http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/laurence-binyon-for-the-fallen.htm), commonly read at Armistice/Remembrance Day ceremonies)

        When Sameer came to after the final explosion, the world around him had changed.

        Last thing he remembered he was huddled with Charlie and Chief, out of ammo and praying for the mercy of a quick death. Now, he was blinking awake face down on the pavement with no real memory of landing there. While he was glad he didn’t feel any injuries save some bruising and a throbbing head, he also didn’t feel anyone else lying near him. That realization more than anything jolted him into full consciousness, fresh worry sparking tight and anxious in his chest.

        Sami opened his eyes, and was unsurprised when he saw only a close-up of ground barely illuminated by pale grey light. He tried to sit up, but was abruptly stopped when his back hit something lying overtop of him. Bracing both hands on the pavement, he pushed himself upward - with a little effort the blockage gave way and Sami sat up onto his knees, the sheet of corrugated metal that had been the culprit falling away behind him.

        When he leaned back to look around and catch his breath, what he saw stole it away again.

     Diana was flying - no, floating - at least twenty feet off the ground, facing away from him towards a massive smouldering crater in the earth. Stirring German soldiers lay scattered on the ground behind her.

        Around where he now sat was a tangled mess of strewn scaffolding and metal sheets. Looking further, the entire airfield had been reduced to a smoking ruin. Ares was nowhere in sight - more distressingly, neither were the rest of Sami’s friends.

        As the sun broke over the horizon, Diana slowly floated back down to earth. She turned to take in the destruction surrounding her. Most of the Germans began to pick themselves up and gape at the scene; Sami spotted Chief towering amongst them, and sighed in relief. But wait, where was-

        A creaking, clanking sound drew Sami’s attention to the wreckage behind him. He turned to see a twisted chunk of scaffolding shaking back and forth. It rattled again, and the muffled groan echoing from somewhere underneath sounded eerily familiar. His heart lurched.

        _Charlie._

        Sami scrambled to his feet. He ignored the dizzy spinning of his head, the sharp protests from his bruised legs and back - hardly important. Balancing caution and haste, he climbed over and around the wreckage to the clear space on the far side of the scaffold.

        _Let it be him. Please, let him be alright._

        Steeling himself for all manner of horrors and heartbreak, Sami bent down to peer beneath the wreck - and nearly bumped heads with Charlie. He was somewhat disheveled but unquestionably alive, midway through crawling out on his own.

        “Oh, _merci dieu_!” Sami breathed. He knelt to grip Charlie firmly under the arms and was relieved to find him solid and real beneath his hands, though wild-eyed and trembling. “Here, can you stand? Lean on me, I’ve got you.”

        Charlie nodded shakily, bracing both hands on Sami’s shoulders; Sami grit his teeth and with a deep breath and a little teamwork, hauled Charlie to his feet. Once upright they paused to catch their breath. Sami’s injuries reprimanded him viciously for this exertion, his back in particular. Charlie didn’t seem to be in any better shape - he leaned heavily against Sami’s shoulders and wavered slightly from side to side, blinking and gaping at him. Sami held him steady with a hand under each arm, quashing the overwhelming selfish urge to pull him into a hug and just hold on tight.  _Not the time for your foolish feelings, idiota._

        Instead Sami began looking Charlie over for injuries. Hands were definitely fine, fingers digging hard into Sami’s shoulders, arms and legs shaky but holding him up; face was dirt-smudged, furrowed with confusion and concern, but unmarred except for a small cut on his cheek; no sign of any visible head injuries. Body was- _oh._ Sami gasped, heart leaping to his throat.

        Charlie’s overcoat was ripped through and soaked with blood in large patches across the torso. Biting down rising panic, Sami pushed the open flaps of the coat aside and began patting over Charlie’s stomach and chest with both hands, peering through the dim light to try and see the extent of his injuries.

        _Death does not get to take anyone else I care about today. It cannot have him._

        “Sami? Are you alright?” Charlie frowned, glancing down at Sami’s increasingly frantic movements. “What’re you doin’?”

        “Trying to find where you are hurt.” Sami answered gravely, not so much as glancing up from his prodding. Something wasn’t adding up. There were no signs of damage to Charlie’s clothes under the coat, and no blood there whatsoever. In fact, Charlie didn’t seem to be injured at all - he was barely even flinching.

        Sami’s exhausted, battered head was spinning, his usually sharp mind staggering at the mismatched evidence. His fingers stuttered over Charlie’s ribs, feeling the utterly intact material of his uniform jacket. “I- I can’t... there’s no- I don’t....”

        Charlie glanced down at his own attire, and realization dawned across his face with a gasp. “Oh, no no, no Sameer listen, ‘s’not my coat, remember? It’s a _German_ coat, I took it off a dead man. Blood’s all dried up, see?” He leaned down to catch Sami’s gaze, brow pinched with concern, eyes earnest. “I’m fine Sami; a lil’ bruised and beat, but I’ll live. Are _you_ okay?”

        Sami’s frantic hands on his chest stilled, coming to rest flat against the fabric as reality finally sank in. _He’s alright. Thank goodness, thank goodness, he is alright._  The last few hours of memory were a chaotic blur of gunfire and explosions, but now Sami could remember taking the coats. _It was my own damn idea._ Hereleased a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding, eyes falling shut in blissful relief. The nervous energy that had been keeping him up simply melted away. Shoulders slumping, Sami leaned heavy into Charlie’s steadying hands; suddenly he felt utterly exhausted.

        “Sami?” he heard Charlie say, voice tight with worry. Unexpectedly, he felt a hand gently cup his cheek. His eyes flew open in surprise, whipping up to meet Charlie’s anxious wide-eyed gaze.

        “Sameer?” Charlie said a little louder, leaning forward, “You didn’t answer me, are you alright? Are you hurt at all?”

        Sami shook his head, leaning his cheek into Charlie’s touch with a sigh. “Tired as hell and bruised all over, but that is it. Might’ve hit my head in that last explosion, but I just feel a little dazed, s’not bleeding.” This didn’t make Charlie look any less worried, so he tried a shaky smile. “Look at me Charlie, I’ll be _fine_. I have had much worse.”

        Without warning, Charlie yanked Sami forward into a crushing embrace.

        “Ow!” Sami cried out at the sudden pressure on his back; then quieter hissed “I _said_ I was bruised, remember?”

        “Sorry,” Charlie eased his hold a fraction, voice wobbling. “You just... you had me scared for a minute there, is all. Sorry.”

        Sami could feel Charlie’s hands trembling, one pressed flat against his back and the other cradling his head to Charlie’s shoulder, tangled in his hair. Acting on instinct, he lifted his arms to wrap Charlie in a hug of his own, squeezing tight.

        “It’s okay Charlie,” Sami whispered, voice thick with emotion. “We’re okay, just breathe. Just breathe.”

        Sami tucked his face against Charlie’s shoulder. He closed his eyes, listening to the shaky inhale and exhale of Charlie’s breath against his neck, matching his own breathing to it. Slowly, Sami’s heart stopped pounding in his ears, and the tremor in Charlie’s hands faded away. Still there they stood, clinging on tight to each other as the growing dawn light washed over them.

        Trying to even begin processing everything that had happened in the night sent Sami’s head spinning again, so he brushed those thoughts away for another time. Instead he simply let himself be held, taking and giving the simple comfort of contact; and he listened now to the strange calm all around them. In the woods at the edge of the field, a few birds began to sing.

        _This... this_ _must be what peace feels like_. He had nearly forgotten it, in the course of this long, terrible war.

        “Charlie! Sameer!!” Chief’s excited shout from down the airstrip shattered the quiet, jolting Sami from his thoughts as they split apart and turned towards his voice, side by side. He was waving and grinning at them next to Diana. She smiled, and gave a small wave as well. Chief was less reserved, hooting and cheering “You’re alive!!” 

        Charlie grinned and waved back. Looking over at him smiling into the sun, for an moment Sami ached to pull him back into the embrace. He felt foolish for wishing it, and yet Charlie’s arm was still slung over his shoulders. From that small fact Sami found the nerve to keep his arm securely around Charlie’s waist, holding on.

        “Aye, we’re alive!!” Charlie crowed, laughing and waving exuberantly with his free arm while the other pulled Sami closer. “We’re alive!”

        Sami smiled despite the pang of guilt that shot through his chest as he suddenly thought of Steve. Good, brave, kind Steve, who had given his life to save the day. _So that we could live._

        He swallowed back the wave of emotion that threatened to overcome him. There would be a time to grieve, but it wasn’t now; they still had a long road home ahead of them.

        Now, he closed his eyes and felt the gentle warmth of the sunrise on his face; the energetic flame of Charlie, shouting and waving, safe by his side. Sami held him a little tighter and took a deep breath of the crisp winter morning air, basking in the dawn of a new day he hadn’t thought they would get to see.

        _We are **alive.**_

**Author's Note:**

> [update: if you are re-reading this after 5/3/18 and are like “hey some of it seems different” there have been heavy revisions to make the prose smoother and make the whole thing sappier, hopefully]
> 
> I feel absolutely ashamed that my first Wonder Woman fic doesn’t even give Diana a speaking line, but I promise that will change in the future! I’m also still figuring out how to write her right tbh
> 
> I guess you COULD choose to read this as platonic, but like, here’s my honest 2 cents: 
> 
> These two were totally cute and totally gay, and I love them (I love everyone in this movie), and this isn’t even the first fic I’ve written for them, it’s just the first thing that’s managed to make it to the publishing phase. 2 years of writers block broke like a dam and I have cranked out 10000+ words of WIP (plus a dozen headcanons) on Charlie and Sameer in less than 3 weeks!
> 
> Shoutout to my partner in crime elri, whose fic “I’ll Walk Beside You” inaugurated this ship tag and directly inspired this one. Ur ship name is tacky but I <3 and accept u anyway
> 
> Shoutout to any people reading this, come talk to us about this ship it’s so fuckin lonely out here


End file.
